Prelude To Forever
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: He'll always be there for her, and one day she'll come to see and accept their destined love that he already honors.  Het.


Title: "Prelude To Forever"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Rating: PG-13  
>Summary: He'll always be there for her, and one day she'll come to see and accept their destined love that he already honors.<br>Warnings: Het  
>Word Count: 2,355<br>Date Written: 6 August, 2011  
>Challenge: XDisneyDreamers LJ comm's weekly challenge<br>Disclaimer: Alek, Chloe, all other characters mentioned within, and The Nine Lives of Chloe King are & TM ABC Family and any other rightful owners, none of whom are the author. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

She lay, gazing out into the dark in the stillness of her own lonely bed, and replaying the night's events over and over again in her mind. She had almost lost her mother today. She'd always loved her mother, but she hadn't truly realized all that the woman meant to her until they had been trapped in the closet, facing what could have easily been certain death. She was supposed to have eight more lives but her mother only one, and if they'd shot her, the would have also killed her mother. Coming back to life would not have been worth it to find her mother dead. The woman was her best friend and a huge part of her world. She couldn't even imagine her world without her presence in it and didn't want to have to think of it, let alone experience it.

Chloe's eyes moistened. She always hated fighting with her mother, but to fight with her over her father was the worst. She still wished she had not gone into her laptop and discovered the truth. She would have done anything to protect her mother from the pain that had come to them both after learning that her father was alive and simply didn't want to be with them. If he wanted to be with them, he would have been there by now for her, if not for her mother, but yet he had not even bothered to make a single appearance in her life since the day he'd walked out on them.

She still wondered why he had suddenly started answering her E-mails after all these years, but she knew she'd never hear the truth out of him. The man wasn't capable of it. Often she had wished that he had stayed silent. It had been easier to think him dead rather than knowing that he simply didn't want them. Her mother and she had done fine all these years without him in their lives. They didn't need him. They both still wanted him, but they neither wanted nor deserved the pain his betrayal brought to them.

Chloe turned over, burying her face into her pillow as her cheeks began to turn wet with tears she'd not even realized were falling down her face. She could hear her mother's soft snoring and wondered how she could sleep after all they'd been through tonight. She was surprised she could hear Alek on the roof. She always knew he was up there, but she rarely heard him. He was making far more noise than usual tonight; she guessed it was his way of reminding her that he was there should anything else happen.

He'd told her time and again that he was there for her, and yet, until tonight, Chloe had never liked him watching over her. She was thankful for it tonight, grateful to him for always being there for her at long last, always protecting her, watching over her. Her world would never again be normal, not just because of her father but because of what she was. Regardless of how much she'd like to change it, she was the Uniter, and that fact not only brought danger into her life but now into her mother's as well.

She wished she knew how to protect her, and part of her still couldn't help thinking that she should have told her the entire truth tonight. It's not like she couldn't prove her identity. All she had to do was pop a single claw, and her mother would know the truth. And she'd probably faint. Chloe shoved her fingers through her long, blonde hair. Her mother wasn't ready for the truth, and she wasn't ready to change her world as drastically as her own had been transformed since her sixteenth birthday.

She remembered Alek's confession. He had been raised by humans, too, and had been close with them until he'd changed. He hadn't told her all the details, but he had told her enough to make her understand the risk of losing her mother by telling her the truth. His parents had been unable to accept him, and now they had nothing to do with each other and were a world apart. She never wanted that to happen to her mother and herself.

More tears coursed down Chloe's face until she no longer heard Alek and instead felt a shift in the air around her. She lifted her head, blinking as her eyes refocused, and was surprised to find him gazing down at her with concern etched over his handsome face. Her breath caught. How had she never realized before tonight just how incredibly handsome he really was?

"Chloe," he spoke her name softly, a mere breath of a whisper, but in that whisper, it was clear to them both that his heart was aching for her. Without another word, he sat beside her on her bed and opened his arms to her. She hesitated for only a fraction of a second and then almost barreled into them. All the trouble with her parents was enough to drive any girl over the deep end, but her world had already been turned so far upside down that she felt as though she was totally lost. There was barely a second of her life any more that was not wrought with anguish and confusion, but in his arms, she found comfort.

He shouldn't be here, not in her bedroom, not holding her while she was in such a state of undress, just tiny shorts and a bare slip of a tank top, but she had no one else to whom to turn. She couldn't tell her mother the truth about herself, not now and perhaps not ever. Amy and Paul were there for her, but they could never understand what it felt like to be so different. The other Mai only wanted and cared for her because she was the Uniter. Brian, like her mother, was in a world of normal humanity and would never understand; he'd run screaming from her if he even suspected she was anywhere close to being so different from a human being.

But Alek . . . Alek was different. He understood. He knew what it was like to be so torn between the human and Mai worlds. He had been forced to give up his human life, his family as well, and knew the pain of losing one's family. She'd thought he hated humans and didn't understand her at all until tonight, but she'd seen the pain flicker in his eyes as he'd spoken of his parents and now knew that he understood her better than any one else.

His fingers splayed apart over her back, stroking her as she cried. She should pull away from him. She shouldn't let him know how weak she was. He'd laugh at her tomorrow. "Sh," he told her as though he could read her thoughts and stroked her hair, secretly thrilling at how silken it felt to his touch. "It's okay. You're okay. You and your mother are both safe, and I'm going to keep you that way."

She lifted her head at those words, wiped a few of her tears away, and blinked up at him. He smiled, and they both acted as though they could not hear the hammering of his heart. "It's okay," he told her again. "I'm right here. I'm always going to be here for you, Chloe King; you know that." She nodded hesitantly, her own heart beginning to hammer as his was doing.

"And I'll be here for your mother, too. I know what she means to you. I won't let anybody hurt either of you. I promise." His eyes spoke the truth of his words, and she knew that he meant every word he was telling her with all of his heart. He'd died to protect her and to save her mother for he knew her soul would be destroyed if anything ever happened to her mother. He'd shown her how dedicated he was to saving her twice now, and she knew he really would die if it took it to protect her.

She didn't want anything to happen to him, but yet it was comforting to know that he was there, always watching over not only herself but her mother as well. Despite how much he complained about her affinity for humans, she knew he'd never let any harm come to her mother. Perhaps she reminded him of his own, or maybe he only cared about her because she was so important to her.

Chloe didn't know, and it didn't really matter. What mattered was that he was there for them, always would be, and had saved them both. He'd not only saved them tonight, but he'd already saved her life a couple of times. Chloe had a feeling that he was going to keep doing so until she lost track of the number of times he had saved her.

"Alek," she whispered his name as she raised a hand and gently touched his cheek. Had it really only been a couple of days since he'd earned that deep cut saving her yet again? "Thank you," she told him, and she meant the words, for the first time, with all her heart.

There were so many things for which she was thankful to him, and in those simple words, as they gazed into each other's eyes, they understood it all.

Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for saving my mother. Thank you for being here for me now, for always being here for me. Thank you for protecting me, even if sometimes from my own foolishery. Thank you for understanding. Thank you for not thinking me weak. Thank you for caring about me, and for my mother. Thank you . . . for loving me.

The last thought hit her with shock, and her face burned as Alek's lips curved up into a soft smile. Those were very kissable lips, and heat flushed her being as she recalled just how kissable they were. She wasn't a very experienced kisser. After all, Alek had only been her second kiss, but the kiss they had shared had been everything she'd ever dreamed about with kisses and far, far more.

He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, and she tingled where he touched her. His hand lingered on her flesh, and she wanted to ask him to never move it. She wanted to kiss him again, and she knew, from the look in his eyes, that he wanted to kiss her.

But now wasn't the time, Alek knew. Chloe was still confused, and her delicious scent filling his senses, her supple body pressing against his lean, hard frame, her needy gaze, and her quickening heartbeat pounding in his ears were combining to make his instincts roar with need. He loved this woman, but she wasn't really a woman yet. She was still a girl, and no matter how much he needed her, he wouldn't push her until she was ready.

She most certainly wasn't ready tonight, and he refused to take advantage of her. "I should go," he whispered, though he hated to speak the words and cringed inside.

Her face flushed a darker red as she realized the implications of his words and suddenly understood what would surely follow their embrace if he didn't leave her room right now. She nodded quickly and found herself gulping for air. "Huh, yeah, that . . . That would probably be best. Yeah." She nodded. "You should definitely go."

And yet she did not move from him. Alek's eyes drifted down and then back up, and Chloe blushed even more darkly. She rolled off of him as quickly as if she'd suddenly touched fire, and Alek wondered to himself if she had any idea of how true that analogy was. He stood swiftly, melting into the shadows before she saw the toll she'd taken on his all too willing body this night. "I'll be, hum, right up there," he said, swallowing hard and glancing, out of the corner of his eyes, to the roof, "if you need me. I'm always here for you, Chloe. You have only but to call my name."

He left before either of them could say anything else, and Chloe collapsed back onto her bed with a smile lighting her face. He would be there, she knew, and she had not taken such comfort or reassurance in anything since she'd been just a child, creating stories with her father and believing that her world would never change. Her world was completely different now, but in its own way, it was wonderful. It was wonderful, she thought, hugging herself, because Alek was in it.

She'd been such a fool to never see him before for the man he truly was, but that was a mistake, she swore, she'd never make again. She'd always be thankful to him, and out of all the new things, both good and bad, that had come into her life since her birthday, he was the one thing that she wanted to keep more than anything else. She was still smiling when her eyes began to drift closed, and her last thought was that she wanted to dream of him, only him and not of Brian, for the rest of her life.

Alek smiled, his eyes gazing out into the dark night, as he listened to Chloe's breathing become softer. He knew the very moment she fell asleep as she began to purr, and his smile grew. She was having good dreams, and he hoped that she was dreaming of him. Regardless, he'd always be here for her. They were destined to be together, and one day they would be united not just in friendship but in love that would out last the ages. His smile growing, he began to purr himself with happiness and hope, and they were both still purring when the sun lifted the next morning with a new day and a new adventure spent together.

**The End**


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